Think we can't live without plastic? Think again. In 2007 I committed to stop buying any new plastic & I've almost succeeded! Won't you join me? Let's see what plastic-free looks like today… for the health of our bodies, our oceans, our planet. ~Beth Terry

Soap and Shampoo and Deodorant, oh my!

One of the best ways for us to eliminate unnecessary plastic is to eliminate the water. No water = no plastic bottle. The easiest step in that department is to switch from liquid hand soap and bath gels to solid bar soaps. But there are other products that many folks don’t realize come in solid form, like shampoo, so here’s an update on my experiences with solid soaps, shampoo bars, and even plastic-free deodorant.

SOAPS:

Plastic-free soap bars are hard to find in mainstream grocery and drugstores, I will admit. Even Ivory comes packaged in plastic wrap these days. But natural stores like Whole Foods are chock full of castile soaps wrapped in little to no paper. Dr. Bronner’s is a good choice for many. Right now, I’m enjoying two different solid soaps:

Dessert Essence lemongrass calendula soaps that I found, believe it or not, on sale at Grocery Outlet for a buck a piece and are packaged with just one strip of paper.

Iyoba Body Essentials handmade soaps that I buy directly from her stall at the Berkeley Flea Market on the weekends. I love the fact that the soaps are handmade right here in the East Bay and that I am supporting my local community. And they smell great. Unfortunately, the kitties think the oatmeal soap is food, so we can’t keep that particular one within reach of little paws.

The thing I have noticed about natural castile soaps is that they do tend to dissolve fast if you let them sit in water. You need a good soap dish with holes to let the water drain. Or a bowl of little stones, which is what I use. Or a bowl with a strategically shaped and placed seashell, which is what Axelle uses. Or a handmade soap drainer like this one made by The Green Cat (10/2013: The link to her homemade soap drainer is gone. But she has other cool handmade things on her page.)

SOLID SHAMPOOS:

I’ve tried three different solid shampoo bars to date:

Lush Re-Incarnate Shampoo Bar comes with zero packaging if you buy it directly from a Lush Store. Through the mail, they wrap it in paper for you. (Correction: Per comments below, sometimes they wrap it up in plastic. Not good. Maybe you have to specify no plastic when you order. *Sigh*) As I’ve explained before in my original post about Lush, when you shop at the store, you buy the product by weight and it’s cut to order from a big block. Lush shampoo bars are a great from a packaging standpoint. But the ingredients in the bar itself are questionable. This shampoo contains Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS), a detergent which can be irritating to some people. According to their web site, Lush has developed some SLS-free shampoo bars, but I haven’t tried them. [07/24/2012 Update: It looks like Lush is using SLS in all of its shampoo bars again. I have sent a message to the company requesting clarification.] My main objection to the Re-Incarnate shampoo was the smell. I just didn’t care for it. And that’s really my main objection to Lush products in general. Most of them are very strong-smelling. In fact, I kind of get a headache when I walk into the store from all the strong fragrances (albeit from natural sources) bumping up against one another. Your mileage may vary.

[05/13/2012: Information about Burt’s Bees shampoo bars removed from this post. The product has been discontinued.]

J.R. Liggett’s Old Fashioned shampoo bar is the one I’m using right now. It has the mildest fragrance of the three. It comes wrapped in paper with a biodegradable corn plastic inner lining. Okay, but here’s the thing. Read the ingredients: Olive oil, coconut oil, caster oil, fresh pure New Hampshire spring water, sodium hydroxide [aka lye], Rosemary-Lavender-Cedarwood and other essential oils for fragrance. My question: how is this any different from the natural soap I’ve been using on my body???

But why am I spending extra money for a bar labeled “shampoo” when perhaps I could just be using the same olive oil-based soaps on my hair that I use on the rest of me? Iyoba’s soaps are made from olive and coconut oils. The main difference I can see is that instead of pure New Hampshire spring water, she probably uses Oakland’s finest. Not a problem.

So, when these shampoo bars are used up, I’m either switching to soap OR baking soda. Colin Beavan, the No Impact Man, cleaned his hair with baking soda for a year. And there are all kinds of instructions online for “no-poo” hair cleaning and a whole no-poo community using baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Life Less Plastic is already doing the cider conditioner portion of the no-poo procedure. We’ll see. I already use baking soda for a lot of other things. Including the next item on this list.

But before that, I just want to mention one more thing. Conditioner. Remember that homemade solid hand lotion I made a few months ago? Well, a tiny bit of that run through my hair after showering, and I’m tangle-free and good to go. Really.

DEODORANT:

I’d been using a Lush Aromarant container-free deodorant block since August and for the most part it worked just fine. But it’s expensive. And after reading that Colin Beavan was also using baking soda as deodorant, I swore I’d try it when this bar ran out.

Well, the bar is almost gone, but not quite. I was scared to switch to baking soda without having some deodorant bar left as a backup. Just in case. Because I can get pretty funky sometimes, and I was just not at all sure that plain baking soda was going to do the trick.

But a few days ago, I had an idea: what if I added a few drops of tea tree oil to the baking soda, just for insurance? Tea tree oil is an antibacterial. And bacteria are what cause body odor. So here’s my recipe: Add few drops of tea tree oil to a jar (in my case, a tea tin) of baking soda. Shake well. Apply with a fuzzy powder puff (which I already had.) And guess what:

No odor!

And guess what else:

No wetness either!

Huh? How can that be? I don’t know, but my pits are not only odor-free; they’re also dry. I’ve never used antiperspirants because of the nasty ingredients in them. So I just live with sweat-stains under my arms occasionally. Maybe this is a fluke and the sweat will return. Or maybe I’m not drinking enough water. Any ideas?

P.S. You should see me secretly sniffing my pits all day when I think no one’s looking, just to make sure. Am I paranoid about B.O. or what? Another victim of advertising perhaps?

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Just wanted to say that I love this post! I love baking soda so if anyone read this and was skeptical about it don’t worry! I use baking soda all the time and I go hiking a LOT. I don’t sweat. I keep it in a little tin with some tea tree and put it right on whenever I need it. Trust me. Save your pennies and just use this without worrying about what nasty chemicals go in or on your body.

Tried the baking soda and vinegar for my hair, and just didn’t like the way my hair felt. I am using a solid bar now, pretty good, but not my favorite. Do you know if anyone makes a more conventional shampoo, in terms of it being gel-like (for example I used to use the more natural ones you could get at Trader Joes or Whole Foods), but packaged in a metal or glass container? Seems you could just scoop it out as you need it if it were thick enough. The baking soda as deodorant works better than any deodorant… Read more »

I am your newest fan and I swear I have read years of your blog in just the last few days. I have completely changed the way I shop and what I buy. I have always bought organic and gmo-free but now I try to be plastic free as well. The biggest hangup with alternative deodorants is I’m worried how long they’ll last. I walk over 6 miles every day at my job and I rarely sit down for 12 hours at a time, my borderline prescription strength deodorant barely works. . . hey it’s worth a shot.

[…] The toothpaste was still an issue, especially since Tom’s switched from aluminum to plastic casing. I went searching for solutions, and found a great blog post at My Plastic Free Life presenting an array of options. So, when I run out of toothpaste in my current tube, I think I’ll try making my own toothpaste using one of the recipes presented, or else purchasing the Tooth Tabs from Lush. It turns out that Lush has a shop just down the street, so I’ll be checking them out for shampoo and deodorant as well, per the suggestions on My Plastic… Read more »

I have been doing some research on natural soap bars and shampoo bars and have started making my own body car products as well. The only difference in the natural soap bars and shampoo bars are the types of oils and butters you use to get a different effect of pH balance (if you have this you wont need a conditionar), cleanseing, moisturinzing, volumizing and whatever other special things you want done for your hair. Other than that the process is the same (cold process). And for the past year I have been on again and off again sometimes two… Read more »

NO! Using baking soda as a deodorant will NOT raise BP by “osmotic action” or any other action! These silly ideas are the reason why nutters like you all stress so much about your soap and shampoo. Worrying about putting baking soda in your armpits may raise you BP, however, so, in your case, it would probably be contraindicated.

All of LUSH’s plastic bags are biodegradable plastic bags and plastic bottles are made from recycled materials. I realize you wrote this a while back, but I think they may have changed the other bowls as well.

Also, you can exchange 5 empty black pots to receive a new product. They are then reused.

[…] FakePlasticFish.com – This is linked to a fairly interesting article on deodorants, soaps, and body washes. TheGreenists.org – This is the site I posted yesterday, but more directly linked to an article about “Skincare from the Kitchen Cupboard.” Pretty sure I’m going to give it a whirl! The No-poo Method – This is an article about cleaning your hair without shampoo. I just don’t know if I’m bold enough to go through the “trial” period. Baking Soda as Deodorant – This is an article about using baking soda as deodorant. Another risky endeavor! Home Farming – This is a… Read more »

I looked through some of your older posts, and I hope this one fits best for commenting… I’ve always needed some kind of body lotions because my skin gets too dry if I don’t cream it twice a week or so. Body lotions always, always! come in plastic bottles. Before reading your blog that didn’t bother me too much, but now it does. I found a great replacement! Olive oil. Even the organic one is not too expensive, it comes in glass bottles, and it works wonders! Just rub it into your skin right after showering when your skin is… Read more »

Oh, I have to get you my shampoo bar to try out. It’s shaped to fit in your hand and I never wrap it in plastic. Oh sure, I still am a complete neurotic when it comes to shipping. Here’s the big question: How do you get a carbon neutral product to customers? We make it with solar power and bike it to the shops in Chicago but now I’m getting requests to ship it out the the East and West coasts. I’m not sure what we’re going to do but I’d be open to suggestions. Cheers, Jack P.S. Can… Read more »

I tried no-poo for a while, and then I quit, and recently I tried it again for about 6 months.. and it just doesn’t work for me. I am now a total convert to high-quality-soap as shampoo, with an ACV rinse. Here is a good post I found about ingredients in soap as shampoo: http://stonl.inspirehandmade.org/?p=18

Just found this website today. Very Informative. About vinegar. Back in the 50’s when I was a child we ALWAYS used vinegar to rinse our hair after shampooing. The shampoos were more like soap then and you HAD to use it. Later on I used wine vinegar on my reddish brown hair gave it a lovely shine. Now that I’m 61, i use white vinegar on my silver hair. Don’t need any special “gray hair” shampoos to keep it from yellowing Gets all the soap out, even hand soap. So use all your bar shampoos to your hearts content just… Read more »

Alice — I really don’t know why you are getting razor burn. I always found deodorant to be very irritating after shaving. I do have to confess that I don’t shave as regularly as I would like to… mostly because I’m always running late. Tea tree oil — you don’t need it. I just used it for insurance when I first started, but after the first batch was gone, I didn’t add tea tree oil anymore, and it works fine. If you do want it, you can get it at Whole Foods or any other store that sells essential oils.

I’ve been using baking soda for the past week and I’ve really liked it. But I’m interested in the tea tree oil. Where do you buy that?

Also, I’ve noticed when I shave I’m getting more razor burn now. I’m trying to figure out why that is? It’s the same razor, the only thing that’s changed is no deoderant. Is it the baking soda? Am I shaving too much? I’m not sure what to do. Any tips?

So much ado about powder puffs! I sprinkle baking soda from a salt shaker into the palm of my hand and pat it into my armpits as I lean over the sink. Whatever b.s. falls into the sink I wipe up with my washcloth, then rinse. The sink and cloth both get clean. Nine months ago I wrote that baking soda ruled my world. I now admit that I’ve returned to occasionally using dishwashing liquid because it really works. I was given a gift of perfumed bar soaps so I’m using them for body and hair. I recently washed my… Read more »

Hi Nollij. Actually, the powder puff that I use is probably synthetic. It came with some sparkly powder that I bought a long time ago and finally gave away. I thought of you and your comment today when I was in a thrift store — they had a fluffy powder puff for sale and it didn’t look like it had ever been used. It was probably synthetic too. But check it out: Body Time has natural unbleached wool powder puffs (pricey at $15) and cotton ones (about $2). http://bodytimeproducts.com/alduspow.html I don’t know if there is any packaging involved. There’s a… Read more »

A related question: where does one find a plastic free fluffy puff for applying said baking soda? Being of the male persuasion, I have never bought a puff so I’m at a bit of a loss in the first place.. and a plastic free puff? I’m guessing it’s not easy to find, but someone please correct me if I’m wrong!

I love that your “deodorant” is stored in a Mariage Freres tea canister. In Paris, their original site was on my block and they are a favorite of mine. So enjoy your blog Beth, I forward bits to the fam from time to time.

As a former Aveda employee, I cannot reccoment them at ALL! Not only do they use SLS’s and SLSE’s but they also use tons of parabens, and are owned by Estee Lauder. Their essential oils are not 100% and instead a mix of other oils…and Aveda will franchise out to anyone! The guy that owned the place where I worked drove a Hummer and lived in a million dollar penthouse condo.

Someone mentioned Chagrin valley soaps, and Ida packagesher bars (soap and soap-based shampoo) in small brown paper sacks, like you would get a few ounces of nails in at a REAL hardware store.Samples are in smaller bags, full bars (about 4-5 times the size of samples when I have ordered) in larger bars, shipped in a carboard box.I quarter the full size bars, and reuse the sample bar bags. So the nice sticker says, say, Scarborough Fair, but I have written on two other scents since.I second reading over at long hair community. Lots of good ideas and reviews of… Read more »

I live in a high-risk fire zone and a recent scare got me thinking about what I’d pack if I had to evacuate. Beauty-wise, I pared my needs down to baking soda, which now rules my world! I haven’t used bath soap, shampoo, conditioner, or hand or body lotion in four days and have used almost no liquid dishwashing detergent. I haven’t used toothpaste or deodorant since January, either. If I can figure out how to make sunscreen out of baking soda, I’ll be set. Baking soda seems to be the beauty secret of no one and I don’t understand… Read more »

A really good source for alternative grooming techniques (I can’t believe I just came up with that phrase in total seriousness) is longhaircommunity.com. It isn’t a conservation focused comm, but we find that commercial hair care is way too harsh if you want to keep your hair, and are all over ways to wash it without shelling out for SLS, parabens, and fancy salon bottles. If you sign up and hang around a while, there are off topic forums for body cleaning, but I think most of that info is also on thebeautybottle.com and open to the public, just with… Read more »

The different between most body soap bars and shampoo bars (and I’m talking about the ones that are SLS free) is that shampoo bars have castor oil in them. Apparently, it’s what gives the shampoo bar extra sudsing power, but coconut oil is good for that as well.

As for the bicycle powered soap mixing, I just mix my handmade soap… by hand! Go figure – no extra equipment involved.

I found that I don’t need to use deodorant after eating whole foods for several years. Even after spending a month in Florida people were not running away from me. It seems like I read something about a yogi whose sweat smelled sweet because of his diet. I haven’t reached that point yet but what you eat really makes a difference.

Hello, I’ve been telling people for years that I just use baking soda as a deodorant and would never go back to normal stuff and they look at me like I’m crazily gross, so thanks for the reassurance that I’m not. I also just use regular old body soap on my hair (I get it unwrapped, delivered in big boxes, and for .59 and is the same I use to brush teeth with…ironically I use fake Oil of Olay body wash on my body….I’m working on it) but back to the hair, the biggest thing I found to make a… Read more »

I have tried a bunch of different things. The shampoo bars didn’t really clean my hair. Using regular soap bars left it feeling gunky, like I couldn’t rinse it all out. Baking soda and vinegar work the best. I just scrub the baking soda into my scalp, then I squirt a little vinegar onto my head, rub it in while it’s fizzing, and rinse with water. I tried apple cider vinegar at first, but I HATE the smell, so I just use plain vinegar now. For a special treat, mix baking soda with honey until it’s stiff enough to form… Read more »

What about Aveda? I know it is not plastic free but I was reading that they try to make their shampoo bottles as thin as possible, PVC is banned in all packaging, some of their bottles contain recycled content etc. Also, you can buy the huge bottles that would surely last at least a year… Not 100% ideal but at least it’s a shade greener than many of the drugstore brands…

Hi Beth – the site is looking good – lots more plastic free people coming out. I have given your site a write up on mine – trying to put together a list – see http://www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.comTake care

I just broke down and bought a plastic bottle of shampoo today. I tried the Burt’s and it did not clean my hair. I tried an Amish one i ordered on ebay (which came wrapped in plastic) and it did not clean my hair. I think I can use this one on 2 of my kids because it has more oil in it. How would I try the vinegar/baking soda thing?? My hair is fine and needs to be washed daily. I also heard the issue with the lavender…after i bought 12 packets of Mrs. Meyers lavender dryer sheets through… Read more »

Re: Lush. I am sooooo dis-recommending them! In fact, as soon as I finish this comment, I’m going to post an update at the top of my original Lush post so people who stumble upon it will be warned about the packaging through the mail. That just does not make any sense, does it? Why would a company sell naked product in the store and then package it in a ton of plastic to mail it? Organicneedle: Yes, I have been spying on you in the shower. Sorry. Does it bother you? But regarding bubble bath… isn’t that supposed to… Read more »

Green Bean – the same thing happened to me just today! I ordered one each of the shampoo,soap, and deodorant bars. Each of them, plus a sample of something else, was wrapped in a paper, with a sticker on top, then in individual plastic bags with a sticky plastic tie around the top (the kind that sticks to itself). I couldn’t even get into them without tearing into the bags and making them unusable. Not impressed, considering that getting rid of the packaging was my primary goal. A 12-pack of Dove from Costco would probably have had less packaging.

Arduous – I guess I should have been more clear. I’m talking about two people: my hair is long, straight and fine. I swim 3-5x/week. I wash my hair daily — I have to otherwise it really looks (and smells) dirty. The boyfriend has hair that is fine like mine, but big curls – if he doesn’t wash it, it smells dirty. If he washes it without using “product” it gets poofy (which I don’t mind but it bothers him) – and conditioners make his hair look oily. FWIW – I never use deodorant. I shave my underarms and just… Read more »

A good soap dish: A small terra cotta plant plate, i.e., the terra cotta thing you put under a terra cotta pot to absorb overflow water. A terra cotta dish will absorb soap drool. Put the bar of soap on something to raise it, like a shell or stones, and set that in the dish. A terra cotta plate will also absorb SOS pad drool and therefore keep the pad from rusting. I have no idea if SOS pads are evil. I was given 100 of them but when they are gone, I will use plain steel wool. I LOVE… Read more »

With regard to ordering online from LUSH, I wouldn’t do it. I’ve been meaning to post this forever on my own blog but I never got around to it so I thought I’d post it on yours. ;-) I ordered their deodarant stick (Aromacreme) and I think I asked for no plastic in the order comments but I can’t remember for sure. Anyway, the thing shows up in a number 5 plastic bowl with lid (kind of like you see for salsa and such at fast food joints) AND wrapped in a plastic bag – just to be sure! They… Read more »

I wash my hair exclusively with baking soda and, occasionally, with an apple cider vinegar rinse a couple of times a month, maybe). My hair has never looked and behaved better. It’s not curly, so I can’t advise on that, but there is a bit of natural “wave” that comes through now that never did before (this is a good thing). I rarely have to use the BS more than once a week, but I do occasionally rinse well in the shower with just plain water in between “washes”. Go ahead and try it!

I just wrote about the J.R. Liggett shampoo bar on my own blog and I must say I love it! I have very long hair (I am cutting off 11 inches this week to donate to locks of love) and I have not had to use conditioner since I started using this shampoo bar. My hair is always super frizzy (even if I do use conditioner) so after lotioning my body after my shower I just run my fingers through my hair. Thank you for the idea of the stones to drain the bar as I was stumped about where… Read more »

Augh, jennconspiracy, I wrote you a long comment about hair care for curly haired people and blogger ate it up!! To quickly sum up what I was going to say:

1) wash hair only twice a week. My shampoo bottle has lasted me a year now.2) no conditioner. Just comb hair through in shower.3) towel hair by scrunching it dry. This way you’re working with the curl. Sometimes I add a dime size bit of mousse but not always.4) Accepting that a little frizz comes with the territory and that’s okay.

and PS…when you do use the vinegar…let me know if your hair freaks out. those reviews that you sent me that one time totally freaked me out. i’ll be interested to hear first hand your experience with it. and allie and i went into lush awhile ago to check things out and check out your shampoo bar and we lasted less than a minute in the store. tooo smelly, gave me a headache.

also…is there anywhere (rainbow grocery?) that you can take your own container and fill up on shampoo at all?

target sells a bar soap in biodegradable packaging. actually the packaging has flower seeds in it so you can plant them in your garden and that is the ONLY packaging it comes with. i havent tried it yet.

and HEY you were gonna try that appple cidar vinegar and baking soda hair treatment i thought!!

It looks like you’ve got short hair, Beth – how does all that business work for someone with long hair? Or someone with curly hair (that gets really puffy and crazy without “product”)?

I’d love if you could review some of these products on SustainLane – we’re going to have a newsletter on skin and haircare coming up and I wanted to include bar shampoos, soap and information on SLS/SLES.

I make my own soap from vegetable oil and lye, and yes you can use it on your hair instead of buying a special ‘shampoo’ bar. For anyone who likes using a true soap I’d suggest making it yourself, it really isn’t hard to make and doesn’t require any fancy equipment. I’ve also been making my own solid deodarant that is working so far. Anyone interested the recipe for the deodorant you can email me at ma3sea@yahoo.com , I’m willing to share, just don’t have the recipe with me right now.

I have not seen any mention of Kirk’s Coco Castille soap in any recent posts re:soap. It is labeled cruelty free, comes in paper wrappers, been around longer than dirt, AND its cheap, we pay 99 cents a bar. I have used it to wash my hair and its not too bad. It is not organic, but you can’t have everything.

Beth…have you been spying on me in the shower? We have been cycling through all the soap options too. I really like the Burt’s Shampoo Bar. My husband adores it. The one I am really having a hard time even finding a non-plastic replacement for…bubble bath for the kids. A bobbing bar in the water is just not quite the same experience as making bubble horns on your brother’s head.

SLS isn’t irritating to some people, it’s actually a registered skin irritant used in laboratory tests to irritate the skin and allow technicians to measure the rate at which toxins enter the bloodstream through the skin. Combined with “fragrances” and colours, SLS allows these petroleum products into the bloodstream, by passing the liver. So I advise everyone to not use anything with SLS, SLES, fragrances (except for essential oils!) or colours (except from minerals or vegetables). Shampoo bars should contain a lot more of the foaming properties – more coconut, for instance, than regular soap bars. I make my own… Read more »

Awesome post! I’ve been using baking soda on my underarms for the past few days and it’s been just fine. If I lean my head over and take a whiff of my armpit, I really can’t smell anything. This is gross, but if I stick my hand on the skin and then smell my hand (sort of Mary Patrick Gallagher style) then there is a tiny smell, but it’s not offensive. It’s probably usually there with deodorant, too, but just masked by fragrance. Anyways, if this is still working after a week, I think I’ll have to deem it a… Read more »